Reichstag

The Reichstag was the parliament of Germany from 1871 to 1945, being housed in the Reichstag building in Berlin since its 1894 completion. The Reichstag was home of the Imperial Diet under Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, and it held little power under the autocratic Wilhelm.

Its real importance came after World War I and during the Interwar Years, during which the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany used the Reichstag as their parliaments. The Weimar government was weak, and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Nazi Party, German National People's Party, and Communist Party of Germany fought over control of the government in parliament and on the streets.

In 1933, the Nazis took control of the Reichstag with the Enabling Act of 1933, which was passed after a communist razed the building in the Reichstag fire. From 1933 to 1945, the Reichstag was home to the pseudo-parliament of Nazi Germany, and it would be the site of the last stand of the Nazis during the Battle of Berlin. When a Red Army soldier raised the Soviet flag over the Reichstag on 2 May 1945, Nazi Germany's doom was complete. Since the end of World War II, the Bundestag has been home to the German parliament, and the Reichstag is purely a historical site.